March 28, 2024
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Residents air concerns about Bar Harbor street project

BAR HARBOR – About 25 Ledgelawn Avenue residents raised concerns about road access, front yards and surface quality Thursday night when they met with officials to discuss the planned reconstruction of their road.

Town officials hope to rebuild the entire length of the street, from Mount Desert Street to Cromwell Harbor Road, between mid-April and mid-June.

The street is one of the biggest residential streets in the local village and serves as the primary access road to the transfer station.

Besides rebuilding the road, the project will include improvements to sewer, water, and drainage systems on Ledgelawn Avenue, according to Bar Harbor Public Works Director Chip Reeves.

Edward Jackson, a local resident and land surveyor, told Reeves and Bangor engineer Ron Hidu that the road needs substantial reconstruction work to make sure the final surface remains even.

When the road was redone in the 1970s, not all of the roadbed was compacted properly, creating dips where underground infrastructure runs under the road, he said.

“You can pave the road 100 times and it’s still going to have the same [compression] lines,” Jackson said. “I don’t believe these trenches are ever going to be right until we excavate them and put them back properly.”

Concrete sidewalks 5 feet wide will be built within the existing town right of way on either side of the road, replacing the old sidewalks, according to Hidu.

The new sidewalks may be up to 6 inches wider in some places and will be wide enough to accommodate the town’s sidewalk snowplow, the engineer said.

Some front yards may have to be disturbed during the project but will restored as they were to the edge of the new sidewalk, Hidu said.

Robin Wade, owner of Acadia Massage, said she was concerned about tourists being able to find her Ledgelawn Avenue business while access to the street is limited.

The reconstruction last year of Roberts Avenue was a “nightmare” for the businesses on that street, she said.

Reeves said it could be difficult to guess where tourists want to go and then to place appropriate signage telling them how to get there. He said that people who specifically are trying to get to and from Ledgelawn Avenue would be able to do so.

“There will be local access allowed on the street at all times,” he said.

People who use Ledgelawn Avenue to get through town, either to the transfer station or elsewhere, will have to use alternate routes while work is being done, Reeves said.

Debbie Dyer, curator of the Bar Harbor Historical Society and organizer of the town’s popular annual Fourth of July parade, said she was concerned about the project being completed by the end of June.

The society is located on Ledgelawn Avenue, which also functions as the final leg of the annual parade route.

“I’m only open from the end of June to Columbus [Day] weekend,” she said.

Reeves, eliciting laughter from others at the meeting, joked that the town had made a decision to make sure the parade route would not have to be changed.

“We’re going to cancel the parade,” he said.

On a serious note, Reeves assured Dyer that the project should be finished by the end of June.

Correction: This article ran on page C2 in the Final edition.

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